MALE PASSENGER IN WOMAN’S CAR PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDER IN WESCHESTER

March 29, 2018— Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced that David Rojas (DOB 02/08/1979) of Yonkers pleaded guilty Thursday to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, a B violent felony, in connection with a stabbing in Hastings-on-Hudson. New York State Supreme Court Judge Susan M. Capeci accepted the plea.

On Nov. 13, 2017, defendant David Rojas was a passenger in a vehicle belonging to the victim, a former girlfriend, when he stabbed her approximately 14 times in her abdomen and chest, while they were parked on Saw Mill River Road in Hastings-on-Hudson. The victim fled her vehicle and ran on Saw Mill River Road waving down passing motorists for help. Rojas drove off with the victim’s car but circled back several times looking for her.

A passing motorist, a high school athletics coach, saw the victim in need of assistance and stopped to help her. The Good Samaritan took the victim into his car where she could be safe and called 911. The victim was then transported to Westchester Medical Center where she received treatment for stab wounds to her abdomen, chest, leg and hand.

Rojas was apprehended in Yonkers driving the victim’s car shortly after the stabbing. After he was located, the defendant was interviewed by detectives from Greenburgh Police Department and he admitted that that he stabbed the victim. Rojas later directed detectives to the spot where he threw the weapon, a metal ice pick.

The defendant was remanded to the Westchester County Jail following his guilty plea, where he will remain until his sentencing, scheduled for May 31, 2018. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 25 years in state prison.

Assistant District Attorney Owein Levin of the Special Prosecutions Division prosecuted the case.